Abstract

This essay aims to trace the evolution of the concept of «climate» in Montesquieu’s work. The question of the influence of climate on government and social and political institutions was posed long before Montesquieu. What appears to be at stake for Montesquieu’s contemporary readers is the justification of a naturalist materialism that seems to emerge in Book XIV of The Spirit of the laws. With attention to the climates in the constitution of human societies, in reality, it can be said that Montesquieu rediscovers Hippocratic elements